


Deck Full of Cards

by GoatBazaarofFics



Series: True Tests Never End [2]
Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Fairy Tale Elements, Fairy Tale Retellings, Short One Shot, Tragic Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-11
Updated: 2018-01-11
Packaged: 2019-03-03 11:10:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13340013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GoatBazaarofFics/pseuds/GoatBazaarofFics
Summary: Flemeth holds many tales close to her withered, old heart. One is the story of Justice.





	Deck Full of Cards

**Author's Note:**

> I have rewritten this story several times, and I'm finally happy with it. This is my origin of Justice, because why not? 
> 
> I still have the multi chapter version, and i might revisit it one day, but for nwo, I'm happy with this one shot.

**The Fool:**

The Witch watches an elven woman, no a girl, through the trees and shadows. She chuckles, amused, by the girl’s foolishness. She is so young. Doesn’t understand her own craft, the fine art of magic. She knows nothing, and yet she wishes to play with spirits. She will demand them to tell her the future. She senses horrors to come. Terrible, dreadful things that will happen to her village, to her people, to her. To her husband. But she cannot not fathom the depths.

But pity sits in the bottoms of The Witch’s stomach. Fate is sealed. No matter what the girl does, the outcome is the same. The Witch decides to warn the elven girl. She does, but it’s too late. Nadia, the trees whisper, the woman’s name is Nadia. And she made her decision. The Witch sighs and waves her hand. She will honor the dead fool by naming a daughter, one of many to follow, after her.

 

**The Magician:**

Nadia returns home. She keeps her vision to herself. She locks her secret in a chest and buries it at sea. It’s the best she can do. She doesn’t tell Marcio, her gentle husband, what will happen to her or the village. The burden of knowing is too much. And if he knows, he will refuse to go on his ship. He will stay and share the fate of his fellow humans. She won’t allow it. So, she encourages him to go and leave her behind. He does. Good, she thinks. At least he will be safe. He can live a happy life without her, without the village.   

Three nights later, there is a raid on the village. Houses are burned to the ground. It is a slaughter for the humans. The survivors, all elves like her, are in shackles. She is put on a boat to be sold to the highest bidder.

As predicted.

 

**The High Priestess:**

The Witch finds Marcio curled into a tight ball on the floor of his destroyed home. The ashes of Nadia’s mother are piled next to him. His small, meager possessions stolen and ruined. His wife nowhere to be found. She sighs and pats his back. She tells him what happened and what will happen, at least to a certain extent. Offers small, comforting words. Meaningless words. There is no relief for him. No way to ease the grief. But through her words, there is determination. He swears to avenge his people.  She reminds the young man he is nothing but a poor fisherman and has no other skills. He ignores her truth and sets out to free his wife from slavery. The Witch almost believes he will succeed. Almost.

 

**The Empress:**

Nadia is sold to a powerful mage. She is human, of course. She buys Nadia to help in the kitchen. It isn’t as terrible of a fate she imagined. And if things get too bad for her, she can reveal her magic. Here, magic ruled all and even an elf can gain some freedom by having it. She considers herself lucky; many of the others weren’t.

Marcio travels to a faraway country, deep in the south. Far from his village, Where the sun doesn’t beat down on his skin. This country is cold, and cloudy. The water doesn’t surround him anymore, but instead green forests do. Closer to where Nadia is, though it doesn’t matter. He is no sooner to freeing her. The Witch had been right. He had no other skills. He isn’t a fighter. He can’t even read or write. This is why he is here.

He travels to a city, so unlike what he was used to. Homes made of polished stone, painted in vibrate hues of purples and reds. The people dress in fine silk and rich furs. They wear fancy masks and ruffles around their face. The gold and glitter mesmerize him and he nearly forgets why he’s there. He swallows down his excitement and goes to the Chantry. The Reverend Mother will direct him to the Tower, where  they house mages and train soldiers to fight magic.

If he wishes to free Nadia, he must learn new skills.

 

**The Emperor:**

The Commander is a prick, and Marcio knows he’s putting it lightly. His commanding officer is cruel toward the mages. Imprisonment. Meals denied. Whippings. Beatings. Mages are treated this way because magic is a vile, wicked thing. They consort spirits, or demons as the Commander corrects him. They aren’t even people, too powerful to be free.

Marcio realizes this is the norm in most of the south. His old village revered mages. They didn’t hold power and enslaved others, but they were treated like _people._ He wonders if he should do something about how mages are treated here. But he has other concerns. He has to free Nadia. That is his only goal in life. The only thing that is important. He can’t worry about anyone else. Even if its wrong. So terribly, sickeningly wrong. 

 And when she is freed, he isn’t coming back here.

 

**The Hierophant:**

He helps a mage escape one day. Then another. And another. And ten more. His Commander finds out. He is ordered to be reeducated. He refuses. He is thrown into the dungeons. He escapes. They capture him.

He doesn’t see the sunlight for an entire year. 

 

**The Lovers:**

Anti-magic fervor spreads through his bones and into his mouth. A year in prison and three more of training, he conforms to his Commander’s teachings. The Reverend Mother’s preaching. He sees mages destroy lives like they had destroyed his. Mages are foul and corrupt and wicked. They court with demons. They are destructive and liars. They need to be controlled and collared. Only a few are good, but they are still a danger. He thinks of Nadia and hopes she understands what he will have to do when he frees her.

After three long years of slavery, Nadia is taken as an apprentice. She knows the other elves hate her for her new status. Master treats her better. Master lets her sit at the table. Master doesn't beat her. Master gives her presents. Master gives her slaves. But she is no a fool. She knows she isn’t free. Just better off. She thinks of Marcio and hopes life is kinder to him than it is to her.

**The Chariot:**

Finally, after five years, Marcio is ready to leave the Tower. He tells the Commander his plans. He tells the Commander about Nadia, his village. The witch who saved him. He tells him everything and the Commander lets him go. The man has become a father to him. Marcio strikes out to the land where magic rules and elves are slaves. He will rescue Nadia and she can be free again.

 

**Strength:**

Nadia takes a great deal of pride how she hasn’t snapped and killed Master. Master isn’t cruel by any means. It’s the arrogance of Master that gets on Nadia’s nerves. She has studied magic since she was five. Far younger than Master, who brags about her first spell at nine. Nadia is better than Master’s other apprentices too. They butcher spells. They ruin potions. They screw up rituals. They can’t even convene with spirits right. But she’s a slave, and they’re human.

Again, Master doesn’t know how lucky she is to be still alive.

 

**The Hermit**

Marcio’s journey leaves him to question the Chantry. He’s alone with his own thoughts and opinions for the first time in five years. He reflects on his teachings. His views on mages and magic. He remembers as a child, he didn’t think this way. He married a mage. He is going to risk his own life for her, yet he spent half a decade finding it Just to slaughter magic users?

Marcio watches the stars and the moon. He asks them how and why he changed. He looks to them for guidance like he did to the Commander or the Reverend Mother. For once, he gets no answers. And it’s for the better.

 

**Wheel of Fortune:**

Master is throwing another party and Nadia is bored. She picks the hem of her robes and darts away from the house to the garden. Tall bushes tower over her. They are sculpted in different animals. Swans, tigers, elephants, peacocks. Red roses and white jasmines sprinkle among the greenery. The warm night beats down on her.

Marcio walks through a garden. It is a still life of a zoo. He is taken by the artistry of the finally trimmed bushes. But he knows slaves were behind this. He cannot admire the beauty. It is disgusting to know the talent is wasted here. The whole place should burn to the ground. He stalks the maze, enraged by the wrongness. He doesn’t know he has two shadows.

 Nadia follows the unknown knight. His metal plates gleam under the moonlight. His helmet obscures his face. He carries an ax in one hand and a shield on his back. Her fingers twitch, her heartbeat races. Excitement and anticipation bubble in her gut, not fear. She _knows_ him. She doesn’t know how, she doesn’t know from where.

He hears rustling behind him. He turns around and spots an elf in the middle of the walkway. She is short, where he is tall. Her skin is dark, like his. Her eyes are cat-like yellow, unlike his black ones. She wears dark blue robes, a contrast to his light-gray armor. She has a staff in one hand and a ball of fire in the other, whereas he carries an ax.

Or he used to. He drops his weapon with a thud. Not because he sees his wife after seven years, but because of the intense pain in his gut. He looks down and there is an arrow. He looks up again. He stumbles forward, hand out reaching for her. He says her name, but the word won’t come out. He falls into heap. Blood pools around him.

Nadia ignores Master and her guards. She rushes to fallen the knight’s side. She crouches down, not caring her robes are now ruined. She gently lifts his head and removes his helmet. Marcio’s blank eyes stare up at her. Her mouth falls open, but she speaks no words. She looks up at Master. Her expression is of confusion and irritation. She commands Nadia to leave Marcio’s side and return to the party.

But Master doesn’t hear the shadows whisper. She doesn’t see the spirits twisting and turning into demons. They demand vengeance and fury and fire and blood. They wish to see the garden razed. They want the sky turn black with ash and smoke.

And Nadia is a good slave. She gives her _new_ masters what they want.

 

**Justice:**

Two centuries and many daughters later, The Witch has a visitor. Not at her hut’s door, but in her dreams. Where spirits and demons roam freely. Islands float in the sky. They twist and turn, never the same. Nothing makes sense. Everything is possible. Here, she is her younger self. No gray hair, no wrinkles. The horrors of child birth do not mar her body. Her current daughter, Morrigan, isn’t here to bother her. The Beyond, is what the elves of old call the realm. The Church calls it the Fade. The Witch?

She calls The Fade home.

She is admiring a new island off in the distance. How she can get to it; what wonders does it hold? As she stands on the edge, a familiar presence presses down on her. She turns and raises a thin eye brow. He is not a demon, but a spirit. A powerful one, but he also young. A knight, who carries an ax and shield. He stands tall like a soldier. He is a Spirit of Justice.

“My, my,” she says cooly, “it has been some time, hasn’t it, old friend?”

“You knew,” his voice is different. It’s deeper, richer. Colder. It echoes with a power not even she fully grasps.

She smirks, but treads carefully. In his former life, he had been mage hunter and she is a mage. In this one, he tithers on the edge of becoming a terrible demon, and she is weak against him. “I did,” she admits in barely a whisper, for there is no point to lie to Justice, “and I am sorry it was meant to be.”

 

 

 


End file.
